European and External Relations Committee, 02 Dec 2003
Meeting date: Tuesday, December 2, 2003
Official Report
244KB pdf
Intergovernmental Conference
The next item on the agenda is an update on the intergovernmental conference. I asked the clerks to commission the paper, which updates the committee on the IGC. Given members' interest in the IGC, we thank SPICe and everyone else who was involved in producing the paper. I wanted such information to be put in the public domain. Members have an opportunity to make any brief comments.
It will probably be difficult for committee members to agree on some of the issues that the paper presents. Some work has obviously gone into the paper—I appreciate the work that the clerks and SPICe have put into it.
Last Monday, I was fortunate to attend a meeting in Brussels that gave an update on the IGC and regions. It might be useful to mention a couple of matters in which members will be interested.
It was brought to our attention that the current draft constitution refers to territorial cohesion and that most regional Parliaments in Europe want that reference to be maintained in the text. We were also advised that the Belgian Government is expected to suggest that there should be a section on interregional co-operation. For regional Parliaments and regional Governments in the past, interregional co-operation has been a great way of taking Europe out to people and communities and I would certainly welcome the inclusion of interregional co-operation in the text.
We were asked to highlight those matters in our member states and regions. I thought that it would be appropriate to do so, as the committee might agree on those areas. It is clear that the committee will not agree on a number of other areas—for example, the Committee of the Regions' having institutional status—but I thought that I should bring those two matters to the committee's attention.
That is helpful. I should mention that Denis MacShane, who is the UK Minister of State for Europe, has agreed in principle to come and speak to the committee in the near future. It is likely that he will do so after the new year and that a special committee meeting will be required to hear from him. As previously agreed, we will arrange that and discuss details of the meeting in due course. We thank the minister for provisionally agreeing to the meeting and welcome his doing so.